


Christmas at Wayne Manor

by GothamRogue81



Series: Scenes from Gotham City [5]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Christmas Party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-08 18:17:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5507933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothamRogue81/pseuds/GothamRogue81





	Christmas at Wayne Manor

They all loved this time of year for one reason or another. It had an adverse effect on each of them individually. For Dick and Tim it brought back bittersweet memories of the parents they lost. For Jason, who refused to admit it, it was his favorite time of year because it embodied everything he wished for as a child, but lacked due to the quality of his home life. Cassandra and Damian shared a similar feeling of being shown what they had been missing in their earlier years.

For Bruce, who had always revisited bittersweet memories of his own, he reveled in the idea that he was creating new memories with his family. Alfred, as was customary, would cook a traditional English Christmas Dinner and Wayne Manor would play host to the Waynes and their closest friends.   
Kathy Kane and her sister Bette were there with Kathy’s girlfriend Maggie. The Gordons, Kents and Prince/Sandsmarks had come as well. And of course, Helena, Stephanie, Harper and her brother Cullen were there as well.

Christmas music played in the background as the guests all mingled. Cassandra weaved in between the guests, taking candid photos of everyone. Jim Gordon and Maggie bonded over the fact that they were outsiders to the plethora of heroes that surrounded them. Maggie was used to it, having known Kathy’s secret for some time now, but Jim was just getting used to the idea that his daughter was once Batgirl and now spent her nights playing Offensive Coordinator to the team of Gotham vigilantes. 

Bruce glanced past Clark and Lois seeing Damian standing alone off to the side with Ace by his side. “Excuse me for a moment,” he said. He kissed Selina on the cheek and stepped out of the circle the four of them made, walking over to his son. He stood next to him, looking out over the crowd. “Everything alright Damian? You don’t seem to be enjoying the party.”

Damian didn’t look up. He just stood with his hand resting on the ebony Great Dane’s neck. “I’m perfectly fine Father. Just watching out for trouble, that’s all,” he lied.

“I think with all of us in one room, Wayne Manor is just about the safest place in Gotham tonight Damian,” he said. He put his hand on his son’s shoulder. “Why don’t you tell me what’s wrong?”

Damian scoffed. “It’s nothing,” he said.

“Damian, did you know that when I was your age, it was my third Christmas without my parents,” he said. “Alfred tried, as he did each year after their deaths, to get me in the holiday spirit. Christmas cookies, decorating the tree, Christmas shopping for the children of St. Swithens…he even had carolers sing outside in the courtyard,”

“Your point being?” Damian said.

“My point is that all those years, Alfred tried to lift my spirits, and I was too busy hanging on to the anger and the sadness to appreciate or enjoy any of it. I looked back on the holiday memories of my parents with sadness instead of happiness and fondness. I wallowed Damian,” he replied. 

He turned to him and knelt down, holding him by the shoulders. “I held on to it all for so long. It wasn’t until Dick’s fourth year here that I finally began to embrace the idea of making new memories and traditions.” He smiled at him. “You’re my new memories. Ever since then, I’ve tried to do for all of you, what Alfred tried to do for me.”

Damian finally looked up and met his father’s eyes. His lips were pursed as he fought to show emotion. “All of you…all of US…have had pain and loss in our past. I know that you still have dreams about your time with the League, and I know despite your last few meetings with your mother, you still love her, and you miss her. But you’re not alone. Your brothers and your sister, and all of us share that bond and none of us are alone anymore. Not a single one of us. We have each other, and this is the most important time of year to remember that.” He kissed his forehead and stood up, patting his shoulder before rejoining Selina and the others.

Ace looked up at Damian and nudged him and Damian rolled his eyes at him. The two walked into the crowd.

“That was sweet Bruce,” Clark said as he came back. 

“What have I told you about eavesdropping?” he said with a grin. 

Selina wrapped her arms around him. “It’s kinda scary how different your two sides are. The big bad Batman with a heart of stone and a thirst for vengeance and justice,” she said “and that soft loveable retired playboy who revels in fatherhood.”

“I still have a thirst for justice,” he said, taking back his glass of wine from her, “and wine!” They toasted and laughed.

*************************************************************************************************************************

Across the room, Tim sat with Jason, Dick , Connor and Cullen. The guys were talking about the Gotham Giants hockey game. They were set to take on the Central City Cougars the next night and the boys were amped. Tim, however, was distracted. He couldn’t take his eyes off Stephanie. She stood with the rest of the younger girls (Cassie Sandsmark, Kara “Supergirl” Danvers, Harper, and Bette Kane) gossiping and laughing. 

He was in his own little world. He had been smitten by her since the first time they met. She, like the others, had a dark and checkered past, but had had played the nice guy from the beginning and had been stranded in the Friendzone.

“What’s he doing?” Cullen asked, following Tim’s line of sight over to the girls.

“He’s trying to use his non-existent mental abilities to get Stephanie to succumb to his every desire,” Jason said.

“Kid’s got it bad!” Connor said when Tim didn’t acknowledge Jay’s joke.

“He’s looking at her the same way I used to look at Barbara,” he said.

“Used to?” Jason asked.

“Well, you know what I mean,” he said. “In the beginning, before we finally got together,” Dick explained.

Jason gave Tim a shove. “Wake up Timmy!” Tim shook out of his daze and looked at the four of them staring at him.

“Why don’t you go talk to her?” Dick asked, tussling his younger brother’s hair. “It’s about time you finally let her know how you feel.”

“Yeah,” Connor said. “We’ve all seen the way you two flirt with each other. She’s definitely interested.” 

“No she’s not,” Tim replied. “It’s just how she is. She’s just a flirt. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Well it means something to you!” Jason said. “If you don’t go over there and talk to her about it, one of us will!” he seemed angry and annoyed. Not by the cuteness of it all, but more so by the sight of his younger brother being tortured emotionally by a girl. “And most likely it’ll be me, and that could go very bad.”

“She’s not even good looking,” said Damian from behind them. He had found his way over to his brothers and decided they would be as good a group as anyone to hang out with. It was them or Gordon and Sawyer and while the boy could hold his own in a conversation with adults, he didn’t think they would be better conversation.

“Drake, your infatuation is useless anyway,” Damian continued. “She probably plays for the other team. The four of them,” he said, meaning the other girls,” stand a better shot at getting into Brown’s pants than you ever will,” he said. “No offense Cullen,” he said to the boy.

Cullen looked at him curiously. “None taken?” If Damian thought that his lesbian comment was offensive to him because he was gay, Cullen knew better. He had heard far worse from people who meant the words to hurt.

“Don’t listen to him Tim,” Connor said. “Truth is, you’ll never know how she really feels about you unless you ask her.”

Dick and Jason spun him around and pushed him in the direction of the girls. “Go get her,” Jason said. 

He looked back and the guys were hooting and hollering. He rolled his eyes, planting his hand on his forehead and shaking his head in embarrassment. Nonetheless, he approached the group of girls, albeit slowly and cautiously. 

“Hello ladies,” Tim said as confidently as he could muster. “Merry Christmas.” He said.

“Merry Christmas Tim!” Kara said, giving him a big hug.

Bette and Stephanie sang along with the music that played over the party. “Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh!” She laughed. 

Tim smiled. “Did you know,” he asked, “that Jingle Bells was originally conceived as a Thanksgiving song, not a Christmas song?”

“Oh Tim!” Cassandra exclaimed, pulling his arm and embracing him from beside. “I love it when you talk nerdy!” she ran her hands through his hair playfully as the girls laughed and she kissed his cheek, causing him to turn red.

“Leave him alone you guys,” Stephanie said, smiling at him. She turned away from the girls. “Are you enjoying the party Tim?”

“And the view?” Bette asked.

They ignored her. “Yes, are you?” he asked.

“I am,” she said. “But I could use some fresh air.”

“Oh, ok, I’ll talk to you later then,” he said, turning to go back to the guys.

She grabbed his hand and pulled him back. “I meant that as an invitation, Tim. Do you want to go outside and get some air?”

“Oh, yeah!” he stammered. “Of course, that’d be fine.” He said, following her out towards the veranda. The girls giggling as they watched the two scurry off.

****************************************************************************************************************

The air was cool and crisp outside. “It’s kinda warm in there,” Stephanie said.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “The fire’s roaring pretty hard,” he said, immediately embarrassed by his choice of words.

“Yeah, it is, isn’t it?” Stephanie said. They stood in silence, looking out at the stars and the backyard, lit in the darkness by Christmas lights along the walkways and paths of the garden.

“I have to tell you something,” he said. 

She looked at him and nodded. “Ok,” she said.

“Stephanie, for as long as I’ve known you, we’ve been fairly close,” he began. “And from the beginning, I said I’d always be there for you, and of course, I’ve meant it,” he said. He hesitated, and then went on. “The truth is, however, that over time I’ve come to truly care about you…in more than a friendly way…”

“Is that so?” she asked, smirking.

“I know that we joke around and flirt, but I have to confess that I mean the things I say when we go back and forth, and I understand if this is a collection of emotions that you don’t reciprocate, but I had to come clean and let you…”

“Tim!” she snapped, cutting him off. “Just shut up and kiss me,” she said, grabbing him by the collar of his button up dress shirt and pulling him close to her, locking her lips to his.

They melted into a kiss, leaning on the stone railing of the veranda. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close to him and she wrapped her arms around his neck. He savored the taste of her lips. She broke the kiss first and smiled at him, still wrapped in his embrace. “You took your sweet time making a move Tim!”

“I didn’t know if you felt the same. I thought you looked at me as a brother,” he said. 

“Timothy Drake, you are the sweetest guy I’ve ever met, literally. You have done nothing but support me and help me in so many ways and you made me realize that I’m more than what I was when you met me. When I doubted and regretted everything I had ever done, and hated myself for so long, you showed me how to love myself. You pushed me to be better, and you never once judged me or acted disgusted by who I am or who I was,” she said.

“You’re an amazing girl Stephanie, and you are so much more than the pretty blonde girl who rebelled against her father in unhealthy ways, that you see yourself as,” he said, kissing her again.

He could taste the saltiness of her tears as they fell to her lips. “You are so goddamned sweet!” she said, laughing. “I wish I could see myself through your eyes…the way you see me.”

“I’ll just have to find ways to show you,” he said. He touched the side of her face, pulling her in for another kiss. 

************************************************************************************************************************

A few hours later, the entire group gathered around the large banquet table. Bruce physically forced Alfred to sit when he tried to start serving people food, pulling him away from the serving utensils and into the seat beside him. 

He raised a glass looking out at the large table of family and friends. “Another year over, a new one about to begin…Having all of you here to help us celebrate the holidays has become one of my favorite things to look forward to,” he said.

“I’m a lucky man. Not because of wealth, or power. Not because of the roof over my head, or the food on this table, but because I’m surrounded by so many kind, decent people I call my family. My father, daughter, my sons,” he said looking at the Wayne children and Alfred.

“My beautiful, talented, smart, witty and adventurous fiancée Selina,” he continued. “My best friends and their families,” he said, motioning towards Clark and Diana. “And of course our extended family, including Commissioner Gordon.”

“Jim, to you especially, I’d like to say thank you. While Alfred had a great deal of involvement in my upbringing, you also were largely important. You were the first adult to comfort me after my parents’ deaths and to show me the good in the people of Gotham. It’s the reason I chose you as my contact on the inside of the GCPD when I first donned the cape and cowl. You both have kept me level at some of my darkest times, and I am grateful to be able to call you a friend.”

“So thank you all for coming tonight. You’ve all had a large part in melting the cold lonely heart of an angry man, and turning him into the family man he never expected he’d have the chance to be.” he raised the glass higher and the others raised theirs.

Jason nudged Damian. “I think he’s gonna say it!” he exclaimed in an audible whisper. 

Bruce looked at him. “I love you all.”

Everyone toasted and cheered and Jason laughed and celebrated like a kid in his seat at the words Bruce had uttered, before getting cupped off the top of the head by Dick.


End file.
